Friday, November 14, 2014

One of our favorite e-mails most mornings comes from
Delanceyplace, which sends a brief excerpt from a notable nonfiction book. It’s
always informative, and usually fascinating.

Today’s is a particular treat for anyone interested in media
relations or public affairs. It’s from “Wilson,” a biography of the former president
by A. Scott Berg, and it describes the origins of the institution known as the
presidential press briefing.

On March 15, 1913, Wilson invited 125 reporters into his
office to talk to them as a group and even answer questions. It was
unprecedented. Before that, Teddy Roosevelt and Taft, for example, would occasionally
select friendly members of the press for informal discussions and sometimes
even a brief Q&A session – but never an open press conference.

Wilson knew he was especially good at extemporaneous
speaking, and wanted to take advantage of that talent. Sure enough, the press
briefing was a big hit. The New York Times wrote: “There was something so
unaffected and honest about his way of talking … that it won everybody, despite
the fact that many of the men there had come prejudiced against him.”

Wilson was also the first president since John Quincy Adams
to deliver the State of the Union Address in person, speaking before a joint
session of Congress. He began that address – all of nine minutes long – with an
explanation: he wanted to show that the President “is a person, not a mere
department of the Government [but] a human being trying to cooperate with other
human beings in a common service.” It sounds as if the same reasoning could be
applied to the press briefing.

He was clearly satisfied with the results. In the next
nine months he arranged 60 more press briefings. And an institution was born, for
better or worse.